I48 PREHISTORIC ANTIQUITIES

pearls; amethyst beads, etc. One of the caskets encloses
a small relic casket made of beryl (aquamarine), within
which are three small fragments of bone. The greatest
interest attaches to the cylindrical phial, which was enclosed
not only by the outer stone receptacle, but further by a
small globular black stone casket, and contains a flat
piece of bone about £ inch broad. Cut on the outer
casket is an inscription, identified by Dr Biihler as being
in a Prakrit dialect closely allied to the literary Pali, which
records that by the father of Kura, by the mother of Kura,

Fig1. 52. Caskets and their contents, Bhattiprolu.
by Kura, and by Siva (has been defrayed the expense of)
the preparation of a casket and a box of crystal, in order
to deposit some relics of Buddha. The sacred relic is now
preserved in safe custody at the Madras Museum.
Near the town of Dharanikota in the Guntur district,
which is situated in the old Andra-desa or country of the
Andhras, the remains of an ancient Buddhist stupa, known
as the Amaravati stupa, were discovered, towards the end
of the eighteenth century, on the south bank of the Krishna
or Kistna river. The discovery is said to have been made
by the servants of a local Raja, who, during a search for